VIII. Look at the following headlines. Discuss with your neighbour what crimes they might describe.

a. Yard check on “sale of A-level paper”

b. Gem vanishes from auction in pink nail polish switch

c. Chips were downfall of computer conman

d. Luggage tags invitation to burglars

e. Sneeze traps a bungling burglar

Now look at the extracts from the reports which followed the headlines. Can you match the headlines to the reports?

1. Late at night in rowing boat, intending to break into an Islington record warehouse and steal a haul of LPs but climbed into the wrong building.

2. He was caught because he became homesick for Yorkshire and wanted to “taste some real fish and chips.”

3. Crooks mingle with trippers at Heathrow and Gatwick and note where they live. They watch travellers fly out then.

4. It appeared that despite tight security, the 9.58 carat diamond was stolen during a series of pre-sale examinations in a specially-lighted

5. About 5.500 pupils who sat A-level French yesterday in London and at schools in the South-east may be asked to re-

Discussion Exercises

IX. Read the following information about British law. Try to point out terms and notions referring to law and British law in particular. Find English equivalents for them and translate the text using suitable vocabulary.

What about the content of British law? Its provisions and principles affect almost every area of public and private life. You will probably need a lawyer if you wish to buy, sell or rent a house. The law sets out the arrangements for marriage, divorce and custody of the children of divorced couples. It decides how you may distribute your goods when you die, imposes limits on how fast you may drive your car, and on what breeds of dogs you may own. It explains what taxes you must pay, and the benefits to which you are entitled. It describes your duties towards other people and organizations – whether you are their employer, doctor, hairdresser, grocer or host for supper. Similarly, it tells you what you can expect of them, what remedies you may be entitled to, if they break their obligations to you. (If a guest breaks his leg on a loose floorboard in my house, I am liable to pay him compensation. If he actually sues me, he will in fact be paid by my insurance company. If my property gets stolen from his car, then maybe I have a claim on him… On the other hand, the British, unlike the Americans, do not spend their time suing each other. It is generally considered to be an activity which makes money for lawyers rather than anything else.)

This law which reaches into every corner of our lives is by and large respected. By world standards, we are an extremely law-abiding people. Perhaps this is because the whole basis of our law is founded on “common law”, which is essentially a series of contracts between free and equal people. It is not hierarchical like most European law. Perhaps we feel, deep down, comfortable with regulations founded on the idea that they are what “we” – as members of the community – have agreed with “us” – as members of the community. In France, if a driver sees a notice saying, “Do not drive down this street” he thinks “ They put it there” and he feels an instant urge to drive down the street. So, I think, does the Russian. In Britain, at a very basic level, we can see ourselves as the people who put up the notice and as the people who want to drive down the street. So we have divided loyalties and most of us acknowledge our duty to our responsible selves. So we don’t drive down the street.

But of course, we are not totally law-abiding, and some groups in our community are deeply suspicious of law and of those who enforce the law – the police and the courts.

(From Understanding Britain by Karen Hewitt, 1996)